Thursday, May 04, 2006

ten pizzas

Either way, I've got the SMWsI got a real laugh out of the headline at Associated Press that read "The Battle Over the Blame for Gas Prices". Hahaha! The article figures that it is either greedy oil sellers or gluttonous buyers. Or, as others say, Congress. And while all these people are all guilty to one huge degree or another, everybody entirely misses the point, which is that while Americans might enjoy getting dollars in exchange for goods and services, the people of the oil-exporting countries do not want dollars or euros or yuan or any other money. They want their own money, doofus.

But what all these groups of people have is common is that they all want to be paid in their own units of purchasing power, which (at $75 a barrel) is about ten pizzas. It makes no difference to them what kind of money you use to pay for the oil, as long as they can exchange it for ten pizzas. Preferably, they would like to be paid in units of purchasing power that GAIN in purchasing power, so that tomorrow they can buy eleven pizzas for a barrel of oil. And if not gain, then at least not lose purchasing power, and tomorrow only be able to buy six pizzas!

Somehow, comparing a barrel of oil to the retail equivalent of ten pizzas puts everything in perspective.

Can the days of the fifteen pizza barrel of oil be that far in the future?